We jumped on a bus heading for Sofia. Sometimes, other people get on buses and they have something you want. This time, the girl in front had a Bulgarian Lonely Planet, which by chance was new, so she WAS going to become my new best friend. She was Dutch, but a Pakistani background one. No problems there, the she lent it to me, then she said that she hated the Bulgarian people. That was the end of our brief friendship. Basically, she was a fuckwit. Still, I took all the info I could get, then ignored her for the rest of the journey.

We arrived, and there was nobody there to meet us. It was fucking scary. We jumped into a cab and went into the centre to find a hostel !!!!! Faaaaaaaaaaaaark me dead !!!!! We eventually found one. The dorm beds were a rip off but this was all we could find. We had some beds at least. Once in and settled, we walked the city. It was nice and compact so we were able to see all the sites. We walked around the churches and cathedrals in town. Even finding the church of Saınt Sofia which Sofia was named from. We also found a Russian church and numerous Russıan monuments. There were frescoes all over the insides of these churches, but we were not allowed to take photos. I complied, quite sadly. We moved on and found one of the crappiest monuments I have ever seen. It was built to commemorate 1300 years of Sofie being a city, but the sooner they pull it down, the better the city will be !!!! There was also some markets with loads of baklava and cakes, so we dived in. I thought it was fair as I have lost loads of weight on this trip. Dinner was traditional Bulgarian, washed down with their finest red as usual

Next morning, we were up early as we had a day trip to the Rila mountains. We were going there as we wanted to see the Monastery there. It is very famous here in Bulgaria and it has frescoes all over it. We booked a day trip through another hostel as we did not want to stay there and we did not want to fuck around with the local transport system as the local buses are completely fucked up !!! The drive there was nice going through the mountains, but I really don't remember much as I slept most of it !!! We arrived and was given two hours to wander around. Plenty really as we spent around one hour at the ones in Romania. I had heard so much about it before we arrived, so I was kind of expecting something to jump out at me. It was bigger than the Romanian ones and the paintings were fresher as they were around 150 years old compared to 500 for the Romanian ones. We were not allowed to take photos of the inside, which I could live with, so I took loads of outside shots. But realistically, I did not think that it was as good as the Romanian monasteries. If I had a choice, I would go to Romania again before I would go to Rila. Oh well. I would like to tell you about the drive back, but I slept again !!!!!

This was to be our last night in Bulgaria, so we bought some take away wine and also drank a load as I did need an intake to my system of Bulgarian wine. I would not know when I would see my new love again